Workers Say This Pay Raise Amount Would Finally Feel Like Enough

For some workers, a modest bump in pay would not be enough to quiet the money question.

A new survey shows how pay transparency and salary satisfaction are weighing on employees.
Photo Credit: *Unsplash/Alex Kotliarskyi*

05/26/2026 6:00 a.m.

A new international survey found that 18 percent of workers believe their current pay cannot satisfy them, according to Talker Research.

Those workers said they would need a 32 percent pay increase to feel they are being paid enough.

The poll surveyed 4,000 employed adults across the US, UK, France, Germany, Singapore, and Australia. It was commissioned by G-P and conducted by Talker Research.

Compensation remains a major concern for workers, but the survey also pointed to pay transparency as a key issue.

Only 34 percent of respondents said they work at organizations that practice pay transparency, either informally or through a formal policy.

Workers also signaled that the issue could affect retention. If their current employer did not honor pay transparency, 37 percent said they would push for a formal policy change, while 18 percent said they would leave the company altogether.

The issue also matters during job searches. If a prospective employer did not offer pay transparency, 37 percent of respondents said they would ask for it to be included in their contract, 17 percent said they would ask for more pay, and 11 percent said they would warn other interested candidates.

The survey found that 81 percent of workers said pay transparency is important to them.

Many respondents said pay should be shaped by years of experience, individual professional skills, location, and local tax rates.

Seventy-one percent said companies should follow the strictest pay transparency rules, even if they do not operate in places where those rules are required.

In the US, 68 percent of American respondents said the federal government should mandate pay transparency nationwide.

The survey also found that some workers are open to using technology to judge fairness. Forty percent said AI could make work and pay more equal between themselves and coworkers, while 26 percent said they would trust AI more than human-run HR departments to audit and assess pay equity.

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